Editing Hunger strike (section)

====Irish hunger strike of 1981====
{{Main|1981 Irish hunger strike}}
{{See also|Anti H-Block|HM Prison Maze}}
In 1980, seven Irish Republican prisoners, six from the IRA and one from the [[Irish National Liberation Army]], in the [[Maze Prison]] launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the [[British Government]] of a [[prisoner of war|prisoner-of-war]]-like [[Special Category Status]] for [[paramilitary]] prisoners in [[Northern Ireland]].<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Robert | title = Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement | publisher = Merrion Press | year = 2017 | page = 173 | isbn = 9781785370939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Dillon | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Dillon | title = The Dirty War | publisher = [[Arrow Books]] | year = 1991 | page = 288 | isbn = 978-0-09-984520-1}}</ref> The strike, led by [[Brendan Hughes]], was called off before any deaths, when the British government seemed to offer to concede their demands; however, the British Government then reneged on the details of the agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-7475-3818-2 | page = 237}}</ref>

[[Bobby Sands]] was the first of ten Irish republican [[paramilitary]] prisoners to die after 66 days during the 1981 hunger strike, with [[Michael_Devine_(hunger_striker)|Mickey Devine]] being the last to die after 60 days. There was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] community on both sides of the [[Irish border]]. Sands was elected as an MP for [[Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)|Fermanagh and South Tyrone]] to the United Kingdom's [[House of Commons]] and two other prisoners, [[Paddy Agnew (Irish republican)|Paddy Agnew]] (who was not a hunger striker) and [[Kieran Doherty (hunger striker)|Kieran Doherty]], were elected to [[Dáil Éireann]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]] by electorates who wished to register their opposition to the British Government's policy. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |title=The Starry Plough on 1981 Irish hunger strikes |access-date=June 22, 2006 |archive-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224042207/http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of the men and severe public disorder, the British Government granted partial concessions to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a significant [[propaganda]] boost to a previously severely demoralised IRA.